Paul Goble
Staunton, June 20 – The NeMoskva news agency posts a picture of a flier now circulating in the Siberian city of Tyumen telling ethnic Russian women there that they must not have children with Central Asian men but give birth only to “real ethnic Russians,” the latest example of racist messaging in Russia.
The flier appears to be more professionally done than most such messages are, but perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this situation is not the flier itself but the reaction of interior ministry officials when asked what they were going to do about it (nemoskva.net/2024/06/18/plodite-tolko-nastoyashhih-russkih-v-tyumeni-nachali-rasprostranyat-ksenofobnye-listovki/).
A press spokesman for the Tyumen office of the interior ministry, the NeMoskva agency reports, said his agency would check whether the report was true and then decide how to react. But he added that if reports about the leaflet turn out to be false, “measures of a legal character will be taken.”
In short, the police have decided to adopt a wait and see attitude about the leaflets but they are ready to file charges against those who have brought these leaflets to their attention if the authorities conclude that is fake news, exactly the opposite of the balance in concerns about such things should be.
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